Is Christmas over?

Is Christmas over?

The commercials are done, the decorations are down in the stores, and shopping carts hold piles of unsold items marked down. People remark, "I'm glad the holidays are over, now we can get back to normal!"

This is so sad. What is "normal"? Is it ignoring your family and parents until the next holiday? Is it complaining and groaning over work and co-workers again?

In the Christian "Heart", it should be Christmas every day. If it were Christmas everyday, wouldn't people be happier? Would people be nicer to one another, charitable, and kind? Would they add a few dollars more to the collection plate at church? Or would they be stressing themselves out trying to make the perfect holiday dinner, or getting the perfect gift for someone they know? Would they be fighting with relatives and remembering long ago grudges?

Christmas should be a state of mind as well as remembering the miracle of Christ's birth on earth. Too many people have forgotten the joy that Christmas is about. After all, December 25^th is just an arbitrary date selected long ago to give us something to celebrate in winter, other than pagan gods of trees and such? What it has become is anything but joyous. It’s become about spending, and companies making profits over the sale of items people don’t need, usually don’t want, and could generally live without. It’s become about, greed, and want, and sadness. People get depressed and associate the holiday with some event in their lives that is long over but never forgotten, memories of childhood, losses of parents, spouses, children, friends. December has the highest suicide rate of any month of the year.

Christmas is Joy, joy of the virgin birth of the Son of God.

Christmas is Hope, hope of salvation in our Lord.

Christmas is Humble, humbleness of His birth as a mere human.

Christmas is Love, Love of God in that we are mortals not worthy of the gift of love in His Son.

Christmas is a Gift, a gift that is eternal.

Christmas is Promise, promise of eternity with God if we accept his Gift.

Can we live our lives daily with joy, hope, humbleness, love, and promise of a gift that is eternal?

Today folks are thinking of things to resolve to do in the next year, things that typically they break before the end of the month. Resolutions are easily broken, promises are forgotten, and commitments are severed.

Contracts are written documents that are meant to hold someone to an agreed upon outcome. Perhaps this year, we should try writing a contract to God? Frame it, post it where you and everyone can see it. Will it hold you to the promises it contains? Only time will tell.

Here’s a contract sample,

On this day, I, (insert name) agreed to live my life and raise my family as Jesus, my Lord and Savior, has asked me.

From this day forward, I will:

1)    Praise God above all else.

2)    Pray daily and often.

3)    Attend Church weekly without complaint.

4)    Give thanks daily for what I have in this life.

5)    Honor my parents and love my children.

6)    Not be envious of others lives or possessions

7)    Love others as myself.

8)    Forgive anyone that has offended me, in the past or today.

9)    Will not complain or gossip.

10)         Be kind to the poor and give whatever assistance I can afford.

11)         Will read the Bible or other media that will increase my knowledge and faith in the Lord.

These things I promise, this day, (date)

Signed, (add your signature)

This is only a suggestion, you might want to start with a shorter list until you are comfortable with the idea and able to master them.

Perhaps if we all begin to think and act like Christ is in us, as He is, the world may become a better place!

In the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and a few others, Christmas is still here and Celebrated until the Epiphany on January 6th , closing the 12 days of Christmas. (yes, that is what the song is about)

My Tree used to come down on New Years day, but now I leave it up until the Epiphany. Some also call it Three Kings Day, the Magi, the day when the three magi arrived to see the Christ Child heralded by the great star. Many countries have festivals on this day, even now, and I think it is a great way to prolong the season and educate our children in our faith. 

How ever you choose to do it, find a way to keep Christmas all year long, and borrowing from Charles Dickens, "God Bless us, everyone!"

Blessings!

The Catholic Lady©

Well, we're still here....

This morning the sun rose as scheduled, the birds are singing, the sun is shining, at least here in Florida, and all is well with the world! 
And another end of world prediction has failed, as expected. No earth quakes, no meteors, no sun flares, no Atom Bombs, no viruses, and especially no zombies! Those dooms day preppers are probably feeling a little silly right about now.  

The Christians of the world are laughing at them because we will be gone! In Matthew 24: 40-44,
 Jesus tells us:

"Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left.

Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.

Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.

Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.

So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."

My plan is to be the one taken and not the one left to live through the tribulation. How about you?
Want to know how to be saved the "Bible way"? feel free to message me, or contact your local Catholic Church. 

God Bless!
The Catholic Lady

*******previous post November 19, 2012*********

Zombies and the End of the world?
(words highlighted purple or blue are links. Click to see more information)

This Sunday and next are the last two Sundays of the Catholic year. Typically the readings are about the "end of times." I was preparing for my class on Sunday when I googled "End of Times" and some sites popped up with comments highlighted, "There's Zombies in the Bible!"I cracked up laughing. Yes there is mention that the dead will rise, for example, today's old testament reading was from Daniel 12:1-3.

1“At that time there shall arise Michael, the great prince, guardian of your people; It shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since the nation began until that time. At that time your people shall escape, everyone who is found written in the book.

2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; Some to everlasting life,

others to reproach and everlasting disgrace.

3 But those with insight shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, And those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever.”

The New Testament Gospel was Jesus telling about the end of times in Mark 13: 24-32. 

24 “But in those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

26 And then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory, 27 and then he will send out the angels and gather [his] elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.

28 “Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates.

30 Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

32 “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

This is a link from the old to the new, Daniel sees a vision of the End of Times with the angel Gabriel helping interpret for him. The Angels come, the nations war, the dead rise, and the ones who's names are in "the book" are saved. 

 Jesus warns his disciples of the signs to watch for the great tribulation, the stars will fall, the Angels will come, the "Son of Man" will come in the clouds, and we should be prepared for it to happen at  anytime, “But of that day or hour, no one knows,".

Scary, huh?

These readings along with the ones in Luke, Matthew and Revelations among others have fascinated our imaginations for centuries. Every age has had people that try to predict the "End of the World".

In my lifetime alone, I can remember at least a dozen different dates for the "end."

 Now it's the Mayan Calender that ends abruptly on December 21, 2012. Good Lord, what are people thinking? Did anyone think that maybe the calendar ended because the Mayans were killed off? 

Television is full of Post Apocalyptic shows, everything from Aliens attacking, to Zombies. Movies have been made with huge meteors crashing into the earth, the ice caps melting and starting a new ice age, and of course the 2012 Mayan thing has inspired several films. 

And let's not forget those silly people that have watched "The Terminator" one time too many, and they are building bunkers underground and storing food and weapons. There's even a food manufacturing company that has jumped on that bandwagon and is making a mint selling pre-packaged food in five gallon buckets! People, people, people, is there no faith left in this world?

Recently, I was listening to Matthew Kelly's new talk on CD from Lighthouse. In it he mentions the largest industry in this country(or was it the world?) and that is Insurance. People worry about everything. We worry about sickness, dying, losing our property, being sued, and much more. We need not worry about the end of the world. If we are Christian and understand the teachings in the bible, we will not be here for the tribulations because we will be taken up to Heaven in the blink of an eye. 

In Father's Homily today, he told us we shouldn't worry about something we can't do anything about anyway. The end will come when it comes, so don't worry about it. I agree with Father.

I also know a little more today than I did a few years ago, and that Mark 13 and Matthew 24, Jesus is not talking solely about the end of the world, but the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. 

To the Jews of that day, they understood the words He spoke. They knew the Temple represented the world. When it was built, it was made to look like the world. The curtains were blue and purple, like the morning and evening sky. The huge pool for ritual washing, was representative of the oceans and waters of the earth. The veil of the Temple, hanging high from the ceiling, had the stars of the night painted on it. Thus, when the Temple was destroyed, the stars will be falling from the sky, as the veil comes down amid the flames.

A hint of this is when Jesus says, Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. About 40 years after Jesus was crucified, around the year 70, the Temple was destroyed by the Romans. In Matthew 24:1-2 Jesus points to the great stones on the Temple walls and says, "Amen, I say to you, there will not be left here a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” When the Temple was destroyed and burned, Titus ordered the remaining structures torn down. The destroyers tried to find the gold that had been in the Temple, overlaid on the doors, lamps, tables, etc., and they searched and pulled down the stones trying to find the gold which was gone, it had evaporated in the fire. Maybe they got lucky and found some melted, but probably not since a fire the size of that one would have raged for days and the NYFD was not there to put it out. Josephus the Jewish Historian reports that 1,100,000 people were killed in the siege. The gardens were laid waste and trees were cut down, making it a wasteland.

This event was preceded by the "abomination" that was placed in the Temple by the Romans, to be worshiped as a god of Rome. The Romans loved their gods and Titus who was the Emperor's son had hoped to convert the Temple for their own use.

When this happened, the Christians high tailed it out of Jerusalem and took refuge on Mount Pella according to Eusebius' writings. (Remember the last post I said I was reading The History of the Church by Eusebius?)  Eusebius relates the stories of the great famine that had come while the Apostles were still teaching, Luke mentions it in Acts 11:27-30 as the prediction of Agabus and that a collection was taken and sent to help by way of Paul and Barnabus. 

The Book of Revelations again relates the destruction of the Temple and the second coming but mostly it is about the Heavenly Liturgy. You can learn more by reading and listening to talks by theologians that have spent years studying, one is Dr. Michael Barber, his talk on the Lighthouse Catholic Media CD, Unlocking the Book of Revelations, is a great place to start. 

The main thing to remember here, is not to worry about the end of the world. There won't be Zombies walking around chewing your arm off. We faithful Christians will be long gone before that happens! Seriously, NO ZOMBIES! 

Blessings, 

The Catholic Lady

What's with the candles on their heads?

Feast of Saint Lucy

I was watching EWTN the other day and this subject came up and I thought it would be a nice one to share.

December 13 is celebrated as a Feast Day for St. Lucy, or St. Lucia, or Santa Lucia.

Lucia, one of the Churches earliest Saint’s died a martyr in the second or third century following our Saviors death on earth, and under the Roman Emperor Diocletian.

Believed to be about 14 years of age, she refused to marry a pagan and after praying to an earlier Saint Agatha for her mothers healing. Now convinced, her mother and she went about at night giving away her dowry. Her rejected bridegroom ratted her out to the local governor in Sicily, and she was turned over to the Romans. When she refused to deny her Christian faith, she was condemned but the soldiers couldn’t lift her, they couldn’t burn her, and finally they gouged out her eyes and stabbed her with a sword. Brrrr, gives me a shiver!

The celebration of St. Lucy Day, however, began in Norse country, probably Sweden. The legend thought to have been brought by traveling merchants from Rome with stories of her martyrdom, Lucy, meaning “light,” was a light in the otherwise dark land during winter when they celebrated her martyrdom on the winter solstice (Julian Calendar), the longest night of the year.

In Sweden they have a St. Lucy procession through town and the selected young lady gives out gifts. 

Other traditions began with teenage daughters, when they reached a certain age, on that day would rise very early in the morning and bake saffron buns, and make hot coffee for the parents. The girl would then deliver them to their room while wearing a wreath of evergreens with candles mounted on them to provide light while she carried the trays. Younger siblings would follow holding candles.

I remember watching a movie around Christmas once, the period was in early 18^th or 17^th century England and the oldest daughter was walking up stairs with this wreath with five candles balanced on her head! I would have tripped or lost balance for sure, or at least caught my hair on fire! I’m a major klutz!

The legends of Lucy, Saint Lucia, followed merchants to other Northern European countries and later England where they are still celebrated to this day. Battery-operated candlesticks have replaced the burning candles, but the tradition of bringing light into the darkness of the early morning lives on. St Lucy is also considered the patroness of clear vision, and is often pictured with her eyes painted on a plate in the portrait. Breads and saffron buns baked for the celebration would be twisted into a figure eight or infinity symbol resembling eyes.

When the Gregorian calendar was introduced, the Feast Day moved to December 13 but the Orthodox churches still observe it on the winter solstice and it marks the beginning of the Christmas celebrations.

All that is really known for sure about Lucia is that she was a Christian and she was martyred under Diocletian. She is documented as being revered and celebrated for her great faith in early church documents of the fifth century, and included in Pope St. Gregory the Great's (he died in 604) Canon and other written documents. 

Saint Lucy and Saint Lucia Day have been celebrated by Catholic and Protestant Churches for Centuries and I think she makes a great example for all of us, and especially young people, for her faith in God and courage in a time of great oppression. Why not celebrate with a St. Lucia Crown? here is a link to a yummy looking recipe, Happy St Lucy Day!

 Blessings!

The Catholic Lady

Immaculate Conception Dec 8

Hi folks,

Since tomorrow is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, I thought it would be a good time to re-post this one about Mary Mother of God. But first let me add a couple things for this post.

The Immaculate Conception is described in Luke 1:35
And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.

This is the moment Mary became the New Ark of the Covenant, which replaces the one completed by Moses and set up in the Temple tent, and then was overshadowed by the Lord. Exodus 40:34

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the Glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

I also found this beautiful video on You Tube with music from Francesca Battistelli, enjoy.

From October post:
Mother of God

The Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, Luke 1:26-38 NAB

 The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

How many of us would answer God's request like that? If this incredibly strange and wonderful Angel came to us and told us that God wanted us to bear his child? Or, some other task?

 “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Strong words from a 15 year old girl who was engaged to an older man.  How was this very young woman able to say “Yes to God” so easily? This was a major life changing request and yet, she says, “May it be done according to your word” and agrees to be the mother of the Christ Child!

This was a special woman, chosen in advance by God, selected to be the New Tabernacle of God, to be the corridor through which God would walk among men, as a human man!
What an incredible honor! Mary was special in the eyes of God, so much so that he trusted her with his baby son. To nurse him, to care for him, teach him to walk, wipe his tears when he skinned his knees, kiss them to make them better. A woman that from the beginning knew that she would see her son suffer and die at the hands of the very men who had taught the scriptures and prophesies of his coming.

Could I do it? I can't imagine having to watch my son die in such a horrible way, or any way for that matter. My son was the greatest treasure ever given to me. How about you? What would you have done when Gabriel came to you?

I'm sure I'd be terrified, despite all the science fiction movies I've seen of some pretty, but imaginary, incredible things. Television has kind of numbed us to the possibility of God making an appearance to us. People would think us crazy, want to shove drugs down our throats to make the voices go away, to convince us it was all an hallucination.

Mary is very special in the Catholic Church. We don't worship her, we only worship God, but we honor her or in precise words, venerate her, as the Mother of God (Mt 1:23,Lk 1:43, Gal 4:4) and pray to her to pray to her son for us. It's the same as I asking you to pray for me, or you asking friends and family to pray for you. All those Saints that have gone to Heaven before us, all our family members, can still hear us.(Eph 2:19,Rm 15:30,Lk 34-38) We can still ask them to pray for us.
We know that Jesus loved his Mother above all humans on Earth, and would never deny her, just as he did not deny her at the wedding in Cana. Like any good Jewish son, he knew what his mother wanted him to do and he did it. Mary knew he would, she even told the servants to "Do whatever he tells you." 

Sure we can pray to Jesus directly, but we can also ask Mary to intercede for us. No matter how desperate a situation, Mary is our Mother and will always be there for us, to comfort us, and to intercede for us. 

Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Luke 1:39-45

During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

************

Blessings,
The Catholic Lady ©

Advent of Jesus' Birth

Advent

The Catholic Church gives us four weeks every new calendar year to prepare for the Birth of Jesus.

It is a time of anticipation and preparation. And I'm not talking about buying presents and making cookies and decorating the yard with large inflatable characters. We pray, give alms to the poor, attend Masses, and some spend time in prayer and fasting.

Traditionally, the season of Advent was a season of Fasting and penance. People would observe the fast during the period until Christmas Day which was a Feast Day spent celebrating Christ's birth. The daily fasting during Advent was dropped in the Church sometime ago, but some people and Eastern Rite Churches still observe this Fast.

Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church
Byzantine-Ukrainian Rite,  Conyers, GA

People would celebrate Christmas by attending Mass and then having a day of feasting on treats that they would not have eaten during the Advent, cakes, candies, fruits (in ancient times, these were a rare commodity during winter because they didn't have jet planes to fly in fruit from the southern hemisphere), then the exchanging of gifts. Usually they would also include a gift for the Christ Child which would be brought to the church and placed in front of the Nativity scene inside the church.

Boy, have we departed from that!. Now it's all about the newest toy, video game, electronic gadget, ever larger flat screen TV's, and sales, sales, sales! All this, and parties, and "me presents" and stress, stress, stress! The TV is full of commercials pushing the sales, making you want the newest thing. 

Credit card companies start pushing their cards at you with freebies to lure you into debt by making it so easy to "keep up with the Joneses". The pressure is on, starting earlier and earlier every year, so that the Christmas decorations are going up before Halloween has even arrived.

I used to work in an office where the "Secret Santa" exchange had gotten so out of hand, it cost a fortune to participate, and then the pressure was put on everyone to contribute to gifts for the bosses. Twenty dollars here, twenty dollars there, and gifts for your "secret santa" recipient everyday for a week! I added it up and it cost over seventy-five dollars minimum to participate. And if you didn't contribute to the gifts, you were ostracized and looked down on. The stress it caused every year was unbearable.

My pastor this week made some very valid points about how we should really spend Advent. He suggested that we become Jesus to others, we give birth to Jesus so to speak, because he has already come by birth and resurrection, we should be Christ on earth now, for others to see, until his third and final return. 

This is a beautiful way to share your faith as well as your self with those you love. How can we celebrate in our homes? Here are a few ideas:

Advent Wreath

An Advent Wreath, make it a daily prayer time by lighting a candle each evening, adding another candle each week. The proper order is two purple candles, a rose candle the third week, and a purple candle the fourth week. Say the Advent prayer for each week, you can find them on many Catholic websites, including the USCCB. Make it a family event.

Christmas cards, when cards arrive, save them near the candle display and use the prayer time to add additional prayers for the senders of the cards.

Nativity, set up a nativity scene. Let your children help, and tell the story of the nativity as to do so.

Advent calenders, have long been a way to teach young children about Advent and Jesus' Birthday. You can make one of your own, I found one at this website, ABOUT.COM and another one with free stencils,at Fashion-era,. This is one from the USCCB website, you can print out, http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-resources/advent/upload/advent-2012-calendar-print.pdf

Charitable Gift giving, plan a gift giving project with your family and bring them to a charity or if your church has an "Angel tree" every year, bring the gifts by the designated due date to ensure the persons receiving them have them before Christmas.

Jesse tree

Jesse Tree, a Jesse Tree celebrates the family lineage of Jesse to Jesus. There are a lot of ways to do it, try this link or google for more ideas.

These are only a few, there are dozens of ways families celebrate Advent and teach their Children to anticipate Jesus' Birthday. 

So take some time out from your busy day, your week, to think about how you can prepare yourself for Jesus' coming. Think about his birth and what a wonderful gift we received from God on that day. God became flesh and dwelt among us. God HUMBLED Himself, to become human like us, to teach us the real way to serve the Lord and gain Salvation, freely giving himself to be tortured and crucified as the Lamb of God, for OUR SINS, not his, so that we can become deserving of our Heavenly reward, Eternal Life with Christ, the Trinity. 

It is more than a once a year celebration, for those who only attend Mass or Church on Christmas Eve.

You are truly loved by our God, and He is always there for you, for us, waiting for us to come to Him, waiting for us to ask Him for his forgiveness and thank Him for his gift to us. Do you need something else in your life? Do you feel that something is missing in your life? 

Come home, come to the Catholic Church and receive the fullness of Faith. We're here waiting for you, welcoming you, into the FAMILY of God.

Blessings,

The Catholic Lady©